Book Reviews

Frankly I got irritated by Ifemelu half way into the story when she made a comment about not liking “hearty” food because she was too judgmental of people that were different to her. I was like who doesn’t like hearty food? Mxiii – importantly, who looks down upon those that like hearty food?

Ifemelu the main protagonist in the book definitely considered herself to be a cut above the rest. That said, it was a story worthy of a read and had a Douglas Kennedy feel about it. He’s my favorite author.

If you’re an African that has experienced moving to America for a prolonged period of time for work or education you will enjoy this book a lot more. My sister is one such person and she said she could totally relate to the experience.

I also appreciate and applaud Chimamanda for portraying Africans in a different light. As irritating as Ifemelu became with her quirks she generally embodied the diversity of African diaspora. The media frequently portrays us as backward or simple but that could not be farther from the truth; there are Africans that love “high culture” (art, classical music, etc.) just as there are many in the West who do not so I am very glad that Chimamanda added a different perspective.

Everyone should read this book as a good piece of literature but more so if you’ve experienced culture shock by moving from your homeland to “The West”.

You would be totally forgiven for thinking that I only ever read business books but fiction is one of my favourite things to read. I haven’t read a lot of fiction in the last two years because I was building my business up and definitely wanted to take advantage of all my free time to up my business knowledge.

I bought this book on kindle almost a year ago but wasn’t ensnared from the start so I stopped reading after the first chapter and had to restart reading it this time around.

I love Douglas Kennedy. He’s one of my favourite authors, however, this book is not one of his best. Firstly, because I hate simple love stories and the only thing propelling me through most of this book was the knowledge that this love story would get more complicated at some point. I love complex stories.

If anyone other than Douglas Kennedy had written this book I would not have finished it but I’m trying to maintain my record of having read every single one of his books – the majority of which are awesome.

Up until the 75-80% of the book I thought the simplicity of the love story very much mirrored a Mills and Boon. The only thing different was that it was well written and the vocabulary used was a few notches up. After that it did get very good and incorporated the kind of complication and drama that I like but I wish the ending was a bit different. I wish Richard had developed a pair of balls and that is all I am going to say to avoid the spoiling the story for you should you decide to read it.

Anyhow, despite my dissatisfaction with the end I have to agree that it was a better ending for a mature love story and anything else would have been too Mills & Boon.